–adjective 
1. no longer living; deprived of life: dead people; dead flowers; dead animals.
2. not endowed with life; inanimate: dead stones.
3. resembling death; deathlike: a dead sleep; a dead faint.
4. bereft of sensation; numb: He was half dead with fright. My leg feels dead.
5. incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive: dead to the nuances of the music.

-noun, plural -nies.
1. A formal act or set of acts performed as prescribed by ritual or custom
2. A conventional social gesture or act of courtesy: the ceremony of shaking hands when introduced.
3. A formal act without intrinsic purpose; an empty form
4. A formal religious or sacred observance; a rite of passage